Railway-rail



(No Model.)

' w. W. DAWLYEY.

RAILWAY RAIL.

No. 256,985. Patented .Apr.25, 1882.

viw' ATTORNEYS hereby declare the following to be a full, clear,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RAILWAY-RAIL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 256,985, dated April 25, 1882.

Application filed October 6, 1881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, WM. W. DAWLEY, a citizen of the United States, resident at Mount Holly, in the county of Butland and State of Vermont, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway-Rails and I do and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters or figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a representation of a plan view of my device. Fig. 2 is a side view, and Fig. 3 is an end view, of one of the rails.

This invention has relation to railway-rails; and it consists in the construction and novel arrangementofparts ashereinafter fully shown and described. I

In the accompanying drawings, the letter A designates the end of one rail, and B the end of another abutting against the end A. These ends Aand B are similar in form, being Z- shaped in horizontal section. Each end is formed with an acute-angular projection, a, on one side of the central vertical plane, an acuteangular shoulder, I), on the other side of said plane, and a central face, 0, along said plane connecting the inner acute salient of the projection'with the inner acute re-entrant of the shoulder, as shown in the drawings. When the rail ends thus constructed are abutted in laying the road the joint formed is designed to possess some advantages with reference to the prevention ollateral movement, as well as the preservation of a true tread-line at the joint. It will be observed that the projection a enters the angular recess a of the adjacent rail, its oblique end abutting, when the joint is close against the oblique shoulder b of said rail, in such a manner that the end projection is kept in place and guarded by said shoulder, sothat it cannot spring outward. At the same time the central faces, a c, of the joint ends, being in contact, prevent lateral play in the op posite direction. It will also be seen that the outer angle, cl, of each projecting end a is ob- I tuse or beveled, and that when the joint is a little open, which would be the case in cold weather, there will be no obstruction to the passage of the flange of a wheel, even should the rails be parted a little laterally in the joint. The beveled face of the outer angle, d, will afford no obstacle to catch the flange, and as the central abutting-faces, c, ofthe joint ends are in the line of direction of the rails, the outer acute angles, 6, of the shoulders I) cannot, even when the joint is a little open, project laterally beyond the side of the tread ofthe adjacent rail, and therefore no obstruction will be afforded thereby to engage with the flange of a wheel passing in the opposite direction.

In order to prevent the metal ofthe rail from being crowded in the joint on the upper surface of the tread, the upper edges of the faces 0 are beveled, as indicated at g, and the upper edges of the projecting end a and shoulder 1) are also beveled, as indicated at h and k, respectively.

The interlocking joint described is designed to. prevent lateral disarrangement of the rail ends, which would tend to cause accidents. I am aware that rails have been devised with interlocking joints having oblique shoulders and ends and oblique middle faces; and, also, that halved rail ends having square projec-. tious and shoulders are not new. Hence I do not claim such devices.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination ot'theinterlocking rail ends A and B, having the acute-angular projections a and, acute-angular shoulders I), beveled respectively at h and 7c and extending to the rail center, and the central vertical faces 0 in the direction of the length of the rail, provided with the bevels g g, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM IV. DAWLEY.

Witnesses T111 10. ll/IUNGEN, PHILIP O. MASI. 

